Women catching up with men on pay - but we all saw wages rise below inflation last year

Workers saw their wages grow at just half the rate of inflation in the last financial year, although the gap between the pay of men and women continued to narrow, official data has confirmed.

The median gross weekly pay packet was £506 in April 2012, just 1.5 per cent higher than the 2011 figure of £498, said the Office for National Statistics.

It means the average worker saw their pay fall in real terms because the official inflation rate, as measured by the consumer prices index, was 3 per cent in April. The below-inflation rise took the average full-time wage to £26,500.

Catching up: Women are catching up with their male colleagues on pay - but wages overall are lagging inflation.

The difference between the hourly rates of pay for men and women, in full-time work excluding overtime, fell from 10.5 per cent to 9.6 per cent of the average man's wage.

The median gross annual earnings were £28,700 for men, up 1.2 per cent, and £23,100 for women, up 2.0 per cent.

The pay gap is bigger when you include part-time work but still fell in the past year, down from 20.2 per cent to 19.7 per cent. The higher figure is affected by more women in part-time jobs, which tend to have lower rates of pay, said the ONS.

The figures also revealed how the gender gap is worse at the top of the income scale, where men earn 23 per cent more. But the gender gap is actually reversed in part-time jobs: here, women earn 5.2 per cent of the average male wage more than men.

Median full-time gross annual earnings by sex; UK, 2011 and 2012

Xenios Thrasyvoulou, from jobs website PeoplePerHour, said: 'Women may be starting to win the battle of the sexes, but the workforce as a whole is losing the battle with inflation. Wage increases are not keeping pace with the rising cost of living.

'Slowly but surely, women are changing the face of Britain's workforce. The part-time jobs market isn't just dominated by women, it is being reshaped by women. Two in five women work part-time, and together they now make up a fifth of the total workforce.'

The ONS study also confirmed that average earnings were higher in the public sector. The median gross weekly pay of full-time employees in the public sector was £565 in 2012, up 1.6 per cent from £556 in 2011. For the private sector the comparable figure was £479, up 1.5 per cent from £472 in 2011.

The ONS said that this did not indicate differences in rates of pay for comparable jobs because the public sector contains many more graduate and professional level jobs, and fewer of the lowest paid jobs, such as bar and restaurant staff, hairdressers, elementary sales occupations and cashiers.

Other studies have claimed state workers do earn more than private sector workers in comparable jobs.

The North East and Northern Ireland had
the largest gaps in favour of public sector employees, while in London,
public sector workers earned less on average than those in private
firms.

The ONS data did show that the difference in average hourly earnings between workers in the public and private sectors was highest at the bottom end of the scale.

That was taken by unions as a sign that pay was more evenly distributed in the public sector than in private companies, where those at the top tale a far greater slice of overall pay.

The median gross weekly pay of full-time employees in the public sector was £565 in 2012, up 1.6 per cent from £556 in 2011. For the private sector the comparable figure was £479, up 1.5 per cent from £472 in 2011.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: 'Today's figures confirm that the private sector has far wider pay disparities than the public sector, with its lowest-paid staff receiving less and top staff getting far more.

'Closing the gap between top and bottom pay across the private sector is the best possible way to tackle widening inequality across the UK.'